(November 14, 2016 at 4:28 pm)Kingpin Wrote: Yes cannot emphasize this enough. Think of non major election years, when we elect our state senators or governors, representatives, millages etc. All by majority rule. However the electoral college removes political equality and values some people votes more than others. Votes in swing states are worth far more than those in say Arkansas and Alabama. For everyone's vote to truly "count", popular vote is the only way.
That's actually a great point about swing states. A person's vote in California is less powerful not just because their vote is worth less electoral college votes than a person from Wyoming, but also because the chance of it tipping the election is practically nothing. "Safe" states effectively mean that the votes of millions of people are ignored and not counted. Over 3 million people in California voted Republican, but their votes don't count for anything, because the Democrats won and therefore get all the electoral college votes for California. Likewise, almost 4 million people in Texas voted Democrat, and their votes don't count for anything either.
At least in a nationwide popular vote, everyone's votes get counted for something.
A system like AV or range voting would make their vote count even more, but baby steps...
